"IS ANYBODY PAYING ATTENTION?" The mindful view of an educated Buddhist blogger who uses critical thinking, evidence, facts, and investigation to come up with his opinions instead of fear based ideologies.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

My Reaction To the Recent Orlando Shootings

I can understand two things about this. Some people are going to say that guns are the problem but I believe that is a simplification of the truth. I never thought I would say this but in that instance, the gun used was not the problem, the shooter was.
The problem for me is simply this, discrimination is discrimination. Bigotry, even wrapped in prayer and a stack of bibles, is still bigotry. The fact that religious and political leaders use hate speech to demonize an enemy that they have scapegoated, is right in line with the agenda of any type of fascist right wing society. Anyone who continues to do that, in my opinion, should be rounded up and charged with conspiring to commit hate crimes and being complicit in homicide previous to the fact and therefore instigating murder. When they are all sitting in jail and facing public ridicule while being told by a judge that they are just as guilty as any other accomplice in the killings, legally, then, and only then will this kind of stuff stop, even if only temporarily.

When one uses critical thinking and actually studies fascism and authoritarian rule, we see that they are the same thing. They are used by two main factions, religion and government.

The fourteen defining characteristics of fascism can be found here: http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm

I dare anyone of them to find one that they haven't seen used in our society at present. The ones I am pointing at presently are numbers 2, 3, and 8.

They are stated as; "...2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions."

Donald Trump is being blamed for "using these things to manipulate the uninformed voter who runs on fear and hate" but Donald Trump's campaign is just the symptom of the disease. This infection has been spread by politicians and religious leaders for power over people, membership insurance, and votes since men first made public speeches. The problem is our society and the people who run it. The idea that one guy is the problem makes me laugh. He is not the ideology and that started LONG before. When racism becomes a national health problem like any other mental delusion, and people are treated for it, several things will happen. Some people will be forced to learn that hate isn't a relevant force to men who can use dialogue and intelligence. Others will be put in some form of rehab until they realize that wanting to be superior to other humans is a myth, while others will eventually be given up on, as if rehabilitation is impossible for them - and they will then be institutionalized to protect society. I don't understand why this hasn't happened here in the U.S. yet.

This idea isn't extreme or fantastic, it is already in place in several countries. People need to come together as one and that means the ideas of exclusivity and superiority have to be deprogrammed from us. This isn't a request or ideal, it is an imperative if our society is going to survive. We, as a society, used to believe that burning witches was necessary, also. There has always been an enemy or enemies to be the scapegoats. The fact that there are people who willingly accept that in order to feel better about themselves, shows that our society and especially the delusionally religious, are sick and need professional help.

Part of the Orlando situation that I haven't heard anyone mention is that the police hesitated because mainly, some of them weren't anxious to save the members of the public that were being shot and bleeding to death, because they have been taught that those people are "sinners or evil" and that means they are looked at by many as "deserving the treatment they get" from a self righteous nutcase. I am not assigning blame, I am merely stating the logical diagnosis of this problem.

About Me

I am an Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix, although I have lived for brief times in other places. I am what one would call a Centrist. I don't believe in radical left or right stances and refuse to let the low information, regressive, right wing people call me "liberal" since that would be left of reality based on opinion, and I believe in facts and research of evidence.